Baby Elephant (Part Two)
This story was read aloud at:
Back at the hotel I asked the manager if there might be something better than the hospital. He looked at me like I was stupid for even trying the Hospital, and pointed me to a small clinic that was only a few blocks away. Why didn't he send me there in the first place? I found the clinic to be clean and pleasant and organized. I paid my 80 Rupees (about two dollars) and waited up stairs. I was quickly ushered into a small room with an energetic young doctor. He spoke better English than I and told me he studied in England. After some usual questions he told me that it was nothing to much to worry about and gave me a piece of paper upon which I could understand nothing and sent me to the pharmacy. The pharmacy gave me a huge amount of pills, a collection of vitamins and anti-diarrhea medicine, pleasantly labeled in English and I stepped out on the street.
And I felt good. It was that horrible cliché where the sun is suddenly shining. I had not taken any of the pills, or done anything to physically make me feel better, but I felt better. The street looked cleaner, the people nicer and I did not feel like curling up in a corner and not talking to anyone.
I smiled as I walked down the street and watched the world go by. I watched the bicycles and rickshaws with wonder and joy. And then I saw the shop.
It was a complete glass front, from the floor to the ceiling. It was a tailor. The sun metaphorically gleamed off the chrome door handle. Behind the beautiful glass wall was a beautiful white marble floor and a small desk with a beautiful lady looking bored. I went inside and mentioned that I was looking for a suit. She smiled and pointed me down three steps to the sales floor. The sales floor consisted of three glass cabinets and two sales men. I luxuriated in the help these two men gave. Leafing through a book to find the perfect style. And then wandering through the fabrics to find the correct colour and texture.
After lots of tape measures placed against my body, I walked out of the store, seventy dollars lighter, and infinitely happier to be picking up the perfect suit in two days.
After a short nap at the hotel, I headed into the city. Along a wide dirt boulevard following the old fortress wall, I walked and watched the world pass by. There were children playing in the dirt street, they had shoes and school clothes, and women sat on the steps of their small houses and watched them play. I smiled at the ladies and they smiled back.
Once the children saw me, I was surrounded, they asked for rupees, chocolate, school pens and anything else they thought I would give out. I was smiling and saying no, I had given away everything that I could give away at that point, when one of the boys grabbed onto my backpack. As quickly as I turned around, a piercing 'turns every boys knees to jelly' motherly scream came from the side of the road. The boys scattered. The mother looked at me and shook her head. I smiled back. Boys will be boys.
My walk continued and a few minutes later there was a group of boys at the side of the street. They were trying to get the small boy to do something and he did not want to do it. He resisted. They cajoled him further. He finally gave in to the chiding and walked out in the street behind me. I could see the mothers watching the boy and me.
I heard the boy's footsteps change from walking to running and I started to turn when the boy touched me with a small stick and instantly run off in the other direction.
The cajoling boys were falling over laughing, and I knew now what they talked the little boy into doing, "I dare you go to and touch the tall white guy."
One of the ladies looked at me alarmed. I smiled at her and gave a small laugh. She smiled back.
Later two teenage boys smoking cigarettes accosted me and said Hello.
I said Hello back.
Then they said, "You want baby elephant?"
I paused for a moment and answered, "I don't think it would fit in my carry on luggage."
They looked confused.
I waited another moment and said, "I would love to see a baby elephant."
We walked through a maze of alleyways, built from the pale brown bricks of the desert. We entered a paddock with horse stalls and then a huge stall covered with a tarp and there was the elephant.
This beautiful huge mother elephant, with chalk designs across her face, was staked to the ground with a chain. And underneath her was a baby elephant. The baby stumbled around. Its trunk flopped this way and that, like an asleep arm after the rest of you has woken up.
The mother used her dexterous arm to help it walk about.
"Seven days." Said the man next to me. The baby was seven days old. I found out later that this was the only elephant to survive captive breeding in the area in the last ten years.
Another man asked me if I wanted to pet the baby elephant. Of course I wanted to pet the baby elephant. He led me into the stall, and I sat down on a bench. He pulled the rope around the baby's neck and guided it towards me. His grey back was warm and knobby. With hard course hairs scattered about. Its forehead bumped just below my knee. Foot and a half tall? It sniffed my shoes with its unruly trunk and stumbled back to mother after realizing I had no food.
I stood by the railing and watched the mother and child until the lamps came on.
On my way out I gave money to the handler and my guides. Some of the best money I spent in India.
Back at the hotel I made two phone calls, I left a happy birthday message for my father, and I called Jenna. She is a great friend who loves all animals, especially Elephants. While we dated, I would dream of exotic places, and she would dream of helping the animals there. I was the first to get out. And she was still stuck in California, (but now she helps the Elephants in Thailand one month every year).
My message went something like this. "Hey Jenna, it's Ben calling from India. Having a great time. I just spent the afternoon petting a seven-day-old elephant, it was so cute and hadn't really gained control of its trunk yet. Hope things are going well in California. Bye."